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Girl May Be Paralyzed After Shooting Over Rejected Advances

Posted: 3:48 pm EDT May 22, 2008Updated: 5:25 pm EDT May 22, 2008

An Orange County teen is fighting for her life and new information from police show it's because she and her friends rejected the advances from a group of strange men.


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Police said composite sketches released Thursday show the two men who couldn't handle the rejection, so they tried to shoot the girls. Those strangers turned a gun on the unsuspecting women and 18-year-old Mildred Beaubrun was shot.

It all started here in a gas station parking lot. The women may have been followed from a nearby club, but when they refused to give their phone numbers to a group of strangers one of them retaliated with gunfire.

At just 18 years of age, Mildred Beaubrun should be preparing for her graduation from Olympia High School. Instead, her aunt says she's in a fight for her life.

"It could've been anybody, anybody's child. And if we can get that person off the street then we can keep it from happening to someone else's child," said Margaret Francis, the girl's aunt.

On Monday, Mildred and two of her friends stopped at the 7-Eleven at SR-50 and Magnolia after leaving downtown Orlando's Club Firestone. They were approached by a group of men asking for their phone numbers. They refused, some words were exchanged and the girls got back in their Nissan.

As the girls approached John Young Parkway and Princeton (see map), one of those same men opened fire, critically injuring Mildred with a single shot. She may be paralyzed, but sadly that's the least of her family's medical worries right now.

"We will not stop until we find out who did this and they're caught," Francis said.

Orlando police said sketches released Thursday are two of the men who were in the car that fired on Mildred and her friends, but there are at least three suspects who took off in a silver or grey Chevy HHR.

"Just to shoot in an automobile because you asked for a number of someone and they didn't talk to you? It's profound," Francis said.

Mildred's family said they have a very large extended family and many are still arriving to be with Mildred. They said she had plans to study nursing after graduation, but now ever minute is a struggle.

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